Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-06-10
PROHIBITIONS GLORIOUS MNNC'
MENT.
Ny pRor. CHARLES W. SANDERS,

An artist. seeing little boy with rosy
checks and laughing face, playing with III.
toys, was so charmed with the beauty anc
happiness of the child that he requested
. the privilege of taking its portrait. Per
mission being granted, he transferred the
features of the beautiful boy to his can
vas. and placed it in his studio as one OF
the first specimens Of his cherished art
and of the beauty, innocence, and happl-
ness of childhood.
Many years afterward the same artist de-
sired to find a subject that would be the
very reverse of this. After long search
on going into prison he there saw a man
who, in drunken frenzy, had murdered
his own wife, and was soon to be executed
as the penalty for his crime. His coun-
tenance was the picture of agony. remorse,
and despair. The artist transferred the
features of that wretcbed cnlprit to his can
vas, and placed it in his studio, side by side
with that Of the beautiful and happy boy
he had taken many years before. On re-
tracing the history of that wretched man
back to his childhood, he proved to be the
same innocent boy whose happy and smil-
ing countenance now exhibited Il striking
contrast by the side of that of the con-
demned criminal.
This is but picture OF what our youth
may become, unless parents educate them
to shun the vices and temptations of the
liquor traffic. Such, fond parent, may be
the fate of that little cherub boy you are
now dangling on your knee, unless you,
like an ancient heroine, make him "swear
eternal hatred" to all that intoXicates.
be tempted and fall by the same insidious
foe. All along life's perilous pathway may
be seen the wrecks of thousands, whose
early training and prospects We're as bright
and hopeful as his. Oh, what is that bit
ter wall which is heard from pious parents
hearts all the earth over! Is it not like
that which escaped from the lips of the
King of Israel: 90, my son, my son.
Would to God / had died for thee, my son,
my SOM" Is it not the vail of blighted
hopes and ruined prospects?
Fathers, brothers, will you stand with
folded arms and silent tongues, and see
this boa constructor, the liquor traffic,
crush out the lives and hopes of your fond
est affections? mo- No." Methinks ]
hear thousand reply: "No! It must not
be! 1t shall not be-" Oh, if all who
acknowledge the evils resulting from this
nefarious business, and the necessity of its
utter humiliation, would engage in its eN-
trpatlon with heart, hand, and ballot, 1t
would be exterminated, certainly: speedily,
and etiectually. Its accomplishment would
be the grandest event the world has ever
witnessed. 1t would be perpetuated in
eloquence. poetry, and song, and transmit
ted to posterity by some master historian,
written with golden pen, on golden
page. in a golden era.
Its achievement would constitute mon
ument far more glorious than any which
the genius of antiquity has ever bequeath-
ed to the generations which were to follow.
Moldering and dilapidated are the pyra-
mids of Egypt, the Mausoleum, and the
temples of Athens and of Rome. Lost are
the cities of Nineveh and Babylon. For
gotten are the countless millions that have
figured upon the earth, and taken their exit.
But this would be a moment which the de
vastating jaws Of Time could never de-
molish. It's foundations predicated on the
eternal principles of truth and justice, it
would remain when all the temples of earth
are demolished and Natures great temple
retains not stone; until the promised era,
foretold in prophecy and invoked in poetry,
when the Angel of Time, standing on sea
and land with uplifted hand, shall swear
by Him that liveth forever and ever, Time
shall be no longer!" For though its pedes-
tai be on earth, its glorious apex towers I'M
to heaven.-Demoresrs Monthly.